Democratizing access, opportunities, and impact for an AI-first India
AI for All
Advancing equitable opportunities and inclusive economic growth for every Indian in an AI-driven world
Our mission is to empower every person and organization to achieve more. Our One India CSR efforts help advance this mission by ensuring we reach those who are often unreached by the benefits and opportunities of technology and underrepresented in the digital economy.
Our efforts are to bring the benefits of technology to drive sustainable social impact and enable economic opportunity for all by building capacity, driving action, and influencing policy for our programmatic priorities:
- AI Skills for Inclusive Opportunities
- AI Innovation for Social Impact
We partner with our customers, partners, nonprofits, and governments to drive scalable, sustainable, and locally relevant initiatives to ensure everyone has access to AI's benefits.
AI Skills for Inclusive Opportunities
Equipping everyone for the AI era
AI is a tool that amplifies human potential, but its benefits can only be fully realized when individuals and organizations are prepared to use it effectively.
To address this need, we launched our flagship skilling initiative ADVANTA(I)GE India. Launched in February 2024, the ADVANTA(I)GE India initiative aimed to provide AI skills to 2 million individuals. We achieved this milestone a full year ahead of schedule. Building on this and our AI Skilling Mission, we now take on the responsibility to skill 10 million individuals in India by 2030.
ADVANTA(I)GE India 2030
Foundational skills
These include digital literacy and basic technical competencies, such as using productivity tools and understanding the principles of AI.
Programs like Diversity skilling, and AI education to children in government schools aim to provide access to these essential skills for underserved populations, ensuring no one is left behind in an AI economy
Applied AI
Professionals must learn how to use AI tools in specific roles and industries. For instance, healthcare providers leveraging AI diagnostics, or educators using AI to enhance learning outcomes.
Initiatives like Capacity Building for Government Officials provide tailored training to help them integrate AI into their day-to-day responsibilities, to improve citizen services.
Advanced AI development
For developers and technologists, being skilled in building and refining AI systems are crucial. This includes expertise in data science, machine learning, and engineering scalable solutions.
Microsoft is upskilling developers in strategic industries through partnerships with multiple government bodies and institutions by providing advanced programs that prepare these technical experts to design and implement AI systems responsibly to solve some of the country’s most pressing challenges
Capacity Building for Government Officials
Microsoft is empowering government officials, employees, and civil servants with training in digital productivity, generative AI, and cybersecurity, enabling them to integrate AI and productivity tools into their workflows. This enhances efficiency, transparency, and improves citizen services, ultimately impacting policymaking, administration, and governance.
In FY24, Microsoft skilled 1.9 million government officials, employees, and civil servants, with 50,000 government officials across various departments benefiting from this initiative, strengthening their ability to deliver impactful citizen services and streamline governance in both urban and rural areas
Microsoft has collaborated with the Capacity Building Commission (CBC) and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) under the National Civil Services Capacity Building program to upskill 2.5 million government officials of the Government of India (GoI). To date, this initiative has enhanced the capacity of more than 1.1 million civil servants working in 58 government departments, achieving a 65% course completion rate on the government’s skilling platform IGOT KARMAYOGI.
This program, aligned with India AI Mission of MEITY, advances AI education and innovation in the public sector and is expanded to other government officials training centres like the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Microsoft is also working with partners like RailTel Corporation under the Ministry of Railways to promote AI adoption in public services.
Microsoft, in collaboration with the Department of Personnel and Training under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, provided tailored digital and AI productivity training for senior bureaucrats, including private and principal secretaries.
Building a Strong AI Talent Pipeline
This initiative integrates AI fluency into government vocational education institutions, training youth, particularly women, in digital productivity, employability skills, and AI fluency, including hands-on Gen AI projects.
AI Innovation for Social Impact
Fostering AI innovation to help create a better world
We are committed to support local nonprofit and social enterprises with relevant, affordable, innovative AI technology solutions that help them tackle the social challenges and accelerate social impact.
Microsoft offers AI expertise, datasets, open-source libraries, and technology/solutions to innovate for social impact.
We also focus on building a strong innovation talent pipeline and building the capacity of nonprofit employees to use technology to accelerate their mission to accelerate the work they do to solve some of the most pressing challenges of the country.
AI for Educators: Shiksha Copilot
AI for Agriculture: Farmer.Chat
AI for Inclusive Education: DLearners
Microsoft is deploying an intervention using DLearners in 1500+ government schools, creating awareness among 2000+ teachers/parents and building their capacity for sustained development of 50K children. This platform is equipped with built-in awareness videos, scientifically validated, screening questions and content that is easily understandable and guides parents/teachers with the best remediation opportunities, based on the child's need
AI for Forest Fire Prevention
Microsoft is partnering with World Wildlife Fund for Nature in India (WWF India), to build Gen AI forest fire prediction frameworks leveraging machine learning for delineating the probable areas of forest fire in three different landscapes, namely Kanchenzonga, Terai-Arc, and Western Ghats across India.
This AI model in collaboration with 5 state government forest departments, leverages high-resolution satellite data with historic trends, employing a sophisticated data structure called a ‘space-time cube’ to calculate fire danger and risk, developing a digital twin of the landscape and finally creating the spatiotemporal patterns of the distribution of forest fires.
This has allowed 250 forest experts and 500 government officials to predict fire outbreaks with newfound accuracy and provides invaluable insights on forest fire management. This solution also assesses the effectiveness of existing fire management policies, pinpoint areas that are most at risk, and has raised awareness among 1500 members in vulnerable communities. It has also highlighted the need for equipping forest officials with adequate resources.
Partnering for greater impact
The challenges facing the world are complex, and no one company, industry, or country can solve them alone. That is why we work across sectors and borders to foster collective action and amplify impact, driving progress faster and farther than we can on our own.
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Governments: Enabling Systemic Change
We collaborate with 16+ central and state governments to deliver large-scale initiatives that create lasting, systemic change
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Customers and Partners: Activating Our Ecosystem
We partner with customers, industry leaders, and organizations to share proven solutions, scale what works, and sustain what matters.
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Nonprofits: Building Resilient Communities
We work with nonprofits, leveraging their on-the-ground expertise and community connections to turn ideas into action and deliver impact where it’s needed most.
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Employees: Driving Impact Through Action
Our 200,000+ employees worldwide —including 20,000+ in India—bring our mission to life. Their generosity, compassion, and dedication create real impact where it matters most.
Stories of Impact
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Unlocking Career Opportunities in India with AI and Technology Skills
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Shiksha copilot is helping public school teachers in India prepare better for class
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Bridging the digital divide for women entrepreneurs
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Aparna's AI Story
7 February, 2024
Village by village, creating the building blocks for Al tools with work that also educates.